IN SEARCH OF PAINTED SWEETLIPS, WISPY WASPFISH, AND THE BORNEAN BRISTLEHEAD

A selection of recent field guides and nature books on Asia

John Day

Ever since early explorers returned from expeditions with birds of paradise, the pelts of sable, snow and clouded leopards, and tales of mermaids (based on the now extinct Steller's Sea Cow), Asia's wildlife has fascinated Westerners. In more recent times, local and expatriate scientists, conservationists, bird-watchers, and scuba divers, and an increasing number of ecotourists, continue to find Asian fauna of prime interest. Now, a number of recently published books permit visitors and residents, as well as specialists, to better enjoy the enormous natural diversity that Asia offers.
The most visually striking of these books, and the one that contains the broadest survey of species, is Wild Asia: Spirit of a Continent (Pelican Publishing Company, 2000, $49.95). Based on a nine-part television documentary produced by Natural History New Zealand in conjunction with Japan's NHK, the Discovery Channel, and Nordeutscher Rundfunk in Germany, Wild Asia is divided into nine chapters, each of which covers a different bio-region. Mark Brazil, author of two books on the birds of Japan, and eight other individuals involved with the making of the documentary contribute evocative essays on the various regions. Exceptionally effective graphic design is used to present over 250 photographs of wildlife and their habitats. The classic Asian species-the tiger, giant panda, orangutan, red-crowned crane, and Komodo dragon-are featured, but Wild Asia also includes images of less-well-known, rarely photographed species, such as the red-shanked duoc langur, Baikal seal, kiang (Tibetan wild ass), painted stork, and pygmy sea horse, that will surprise and delight the reader. One drawback of the book is that it does not include information on the conservation status of the species pictured, the photographic equipment used, and, most importantly, the location of the shots.
Art Wolfe, one of the photographers whose work is included in Wild Asia, provides this sort of information to good effect in The Living Wild (Wildlands Press, 2000, $55). In this large-format book, Wolfe's photographs are interspersed with essays by Richard Dawkins, Jane Goodall, John Sawhill, and George Schaller. Although The Living Wild covers the globe, it contains substantial Asian content and provides a nice complement to Wild Asia.

While both The Living Wild and Wild Asia include a few photographs of the inhabitants of Asia's coral reefs-one of the most spectacular, from the latter, is a head shot of a male cardinal fish with a mouthful of fertilized eggs, which he incubates while fasting-several new underwater guides give more complete information on life beneath the sea. Among them is Marine Life of the Pacific and Indian Oceans (Periplus Editions, 1996, $19.95 paperback), a large-format, 96-page volume, with an insightful text by Gerald Allen and 350 striking photos by Allen and several other accomplished underwater photographers. Written in straightforward prose ("an anemone is nothing more than an overgrown coral polyp that lacks a hard skeleton"), the book covers an underwater region with three times more species than the Caribbean and includes fascinating descriptions of its more eccentric inhabitants. For example, the assfish, commonly found living in the leopard sea cucumber, enters and exits via the sea cucumber's anal opening and feeds on its host's gonads and other internal organs, though wisely not inflicting fatal damage.

Three other books published by Periplus in their Action Guides series-Diving Indonesia: A Guide to the World's Greatest Diving (1999, $24.95 paperback) by Kal Muller, a pioneer guide now in its fourth revision; Diving Southeast Asia: A Guide to the Best Sites in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand by Kal Muller, Fiona Nichols, Heneage Mitchell, and John Williams (1999, $24.95 paperback); and Diving Bali, the Underwater Jewel of Southeast Asia by David Pickell and Wally Siagian (2000, $24.95 paperback)-provide fresh material with minimal repetition, excellent maps, and stunning photographs. Experienced scuba divers and armchair travelers, alike, will appreciate the guides' candid local histories, diving lore, and details on site conditions. Information on health considerations, security, etiquette, and travel practicalities to fit every budget, including the sometimes Kafkaesque forms of transport to the more remote sites, are covered in the guides.
The authors' decades of diving experience and their sensitivity to conservation concerns and the economic pressures underlying them season these guides with a respect for their subjects and the discoveries still to be made in some of the least-known of the world's top dive locations. Non-dive-site essays include one (in Diving Indonesia) on the "Biak Fish Bomb Industry," which describes how recycled wartime explosives are put to unethical and highly destructive use to stun and capture reef fishes, a process that devastates both the fish population and destroys the reefs, and another (in Diving Bali), titled "The Live Fish Trade: Madame, Some Cyanide with Your Steamed Grouper?", on the use of cyanide to collect restaurant as well as aquarium fish. The guides also provide perspective on the process of regeneration that has occurred following natural disasters at various sites-including the 1883 eruption of Krakatau, an underwater volcano in the Sunda Strait off West Java, whose resultant tsunamis killed over 36,000 people, and the 1992 93 earthquake, tsunamis, and cyclone that killed over 2,500 people in Maumere Bay, North Flores, devastating what until then was considered Indonesia's best dive location.
The guides predate recent political concerns at some of the described sites, such as the Philippine Muslim rebel kidnapping of ten dive tourists from Sipidan Island, Sabah, West Malaysia, and the Christian-Muslim conflicts in the Moluccas (Maluku in modern Indonesian) that have resulted in several thousands of deaths. However, most of the sites continue to be safe and accessible.

An Underwater Guide to Indonesia by R. Charles Anderson (University of Hawai'i Press, 2000, $29.95) underscores, with over 250 vivid photos, the reason Indonesians refer to their country as tanah air kita, "our land and water." Anderson focuses on the "myriad beautiful and fascinating small creatures" on show for those who take the time to look. While most of the book is devoted to his exceptional photos, Anderson writes eloquently on the reefs, the exploitation of giant clams, the over-collection of sea horses for use in traditional medicine, the value of mangrove nurseries, goby fish/burrowing shrimp symbiosis, and poisonous creatures. Most specifically, he asks why sea snakes have such potent venom. Your inner adolescent may want to know that sea snakes prey on moray eels, which over eons have developed great toxic resistance. To counter that, the sea snake's venom has become ever more potent so it can kill quickly, leaving little chance for the eel to struggle or hurt the snake. Sea snakes, while inquisitive, aren't considered aggressive to humans unless handled or accidentally stepped on, in which cases their bite can prove as fatal to us as it does to the moray.

Yvonne Sadovy and Andrew S. Cornish's Reef Fishes of Hong Kong (Hong Kong University Press, 2000, $46) documents a 1995 99 study of the fish that inhabit Hong Kong's coral reefs (the northern limit of the natural range for most of them). The photos that detail each fish are more for identification purposes than for visual effect. Many of the species have intriguing names, such as ghost pipefish, wispy waspfish, harry hotlips, and painted sweetlips; the families they fall into include flying gurnards, flatheads, bigeyes, surgeonfishes, unicornfishes, stargazers, and knifejaws. Although records of Hong Kong reef fishes were published as early as 1846, Reef Fishes of Hong Kong is the first comprehensive survey, since prior research was sporadic and sparse. While the book lacks saturated color photography, its text details biology taken from field observations, and some of the behavioral descriptions prove more colorful than the photos. In fact, a glossary would have been helpful so that the reader could track the various hermaphroditic forms.

Kevin Short's Nature in Tokyo: A Guide to Plants and Animals in and around Tokyo (Kodansha, 2000, $17.95) provides a wealth of information for visitors to and residents of Tokyo. Photos, maps, and detailed sketches illustrate Short's scrutiny of everything from the flowering cycles of wild orchids to the unique breeding habits of Japan's indigenous fire bellied newt to the sharp, often ear-splitting cries of the six cicada species easily observed in the Tokyo area. The chapters on birds survey the more common species, and, as elsewhere in the book, include the Japanese in conjunction with the English names. (For identification, Short wisely refers the reader to the Wild Bird Society of Japan's Field Guide to the Birds of Japan, first published by Kodansha in the 1980s, and still the best portable source to illustrate all of Japan's birds in full color.) The final section details sixty-five nature sites in and around Tokyo; it will inform and surprise even old Japan-hands with background information about unexpected locations as well as familiar ones such as the Meiji Shrine and the Imperial Palace moats.

Princeton University Press and Oxford University Press in their respective bird field guide series now cover most other important Asian regions with comprehensive, succinct accounts, full-color plates, and drawings of each species presented in a modern format accessible to both experienced ornithologists and beginners. Most of the guides are offered in both hardcover and paperback editions.
Craig Robson's A Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia: Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia (Princeton University Press, 2000, $59.50) covers 1,251 species. They are well illustrated, by fourteen artists, and detailed information on identification, voice, breeding range and status, habitat and behavior, and distribution is provided. Even a non birder will delight in the vivid plumage of the species and in the names to match: for example, fluffy-backed tit babbler, masked finfoot, yellow-bellied fantail, Asian paradise flycatcher, spectacled spiderhunter, and fire breasted flowerpecker.

Two books by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, and Tim Inskipp-Birds of Nepal (Princeton, 2000, $29.95 paperback) and Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives (Princeton, 1999, $85 hardcover, $29.95 paperback)-cover some of the same material. The Nepal guide, with 760 species and introductory essays on bird-watching areas and conservation threats, provides a more manageable book for visitors to that country. The broader guide covers 1,300 species across the subcontinent and provides distribution maps that face the color plates. Even the probably extinct pink-headed duck is illustrated; the rationale for this may be that there is a chance that the species may still be found, since Jerdon's courser and the forest owlet were rediscovered in 1986 and 1997, respectively, after having been lost since before 1900.
Good as the Princeton guides are, the Oxford guides provide equally useful sources for identifying birds with occasionally more animated illustrations. A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali (Oxford, first published in 1993, reprinted in 1999, $55, paperback) and A Field Guide to the Birds of China (Oxford, 2000, $65 hardcover, $34.95 paperback)-both by John MacKinnon and Karen Phillipps-are informed by the authors' intimate knowledge of their subjects and regions. MacKinnon spent eight years in China and Hong Kong developing field methods for assessing bird species-richness in forests, and computerized species databases and monitoring systems. Phillipps, who was born and raised in Borneo, honed her illustration skills through several editions and revisions, from 1977 on, of Birds of Hong Kong and South China (Government Printer, Hong Kong), which she authored with Clive Viney and C.Y. Lam. It is still the best field guide for that region,
Among the 800 species illustrated in MacKinnon and Phillipps's Borneo guide is the Bornean bristlehead, which has "a loud voice" of "curious honks and chortles" and "habits as strange as its appearance." Also included is the "fast flying" volcano swiftlet, known only from three peaks in Java, where it nests in the crater crevices; as those volcanoes are active, its "colonies are susceptible to periodic extinction." Introductory essays discuss biogeography, conservation, field techniques for bird-watching, and tips on where and when to see birds in the region. The writing is enlivened by discussions of the economic value of swiftlet nests (used in birds' nest soup), and the similarities between the bird-omen practices of Borneo's Iban and Dyak tribes and ancient Greek and Roman augury, among other topics.
In their China guide, 1,300 species are fully illustrated in excellent color plates, one hundred by Phillipps and twenty by David Showler. Essays on the history of ornithology in China and on conservation, while brief, add value, as does advice on avoiding leeches ("an accepted irritation to the hardened birder but . . . quite distressing to the newcomer") and a list of special sites across China for looking for birds. Nine species of cranes and twenty-five species of pheasants can be found in China, more than in any other country, and the plates picturing these magnificent birds and the maps and text documenting their typically threatened status prove quite poignant.
A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines by Robert S. Kennedy, Pedro C. Gonzales, Edward C. Dickinson, Hector C. Miranda, Jr., and Timothy H. Fisher (Oxford, 2000, $95 hardcover, $39.95 paperback), A Field Guide to the Birds of West Malaysia and Singapore by Allen Jeyarajasingam and Alan Pearson (Oxford, 1999, $95 hardcover, $55 paperback), and A Field Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka by John Harrison and Tim Worfolk (Oxford, 1999, $100 hardcover, $35 paperback) each cover their respective avifaunas with often distinctively beautiful color plates and useful species descriptions. In the Malaysia guide, there is a table of nightbird calls, which describes the calls of twenty-three nocturnal species. Just imagine listening in the dark Kedah forest for the Brown Fish Owl's "laughing hoots in a definite rhythm" or its "low hoarse scream."

A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia, Including the Philippines and Borneo, with text and photos by Morten Strange (Periplus, 2000, $24.95 paperback), covers 668 species and thus is more compact, but less comprehensive and potentially less useful, than the Princeton guide to the same area by Craig Robson. Many of the photos provide superb views (for example, those of the stork-billed kingfisher, crimson-winged woodpecker, long-tailed broadbill, and blue-headed pitta), but the quality of some of the others is uneven.

Every country in Asia, and elsewhere, would benefit from having a book as stimulating as Birding Indonesia: A Birdwatcher's Guide to the World's Largest Archipelago edited by Paul Jepson and Rosie Ounsted (Periplus, 1997, $24.95 paperback). Highly readable, beautifully illustrated sections range from discussions of the early ornithologist explorers, including Alfred Russel Wallace, whose theorizing while recovering from fever in Eastern Indonesia provided concepts which Darwin included in his presentation on the origin of species, to sections written by the present-day bird-watcher and Bali resident Victor Mason. A truly delightful character who leads Bali bird walks that fuse ornithology, culture, and landscape, Mason contributed the Bali chapters, while other leading authorities cover locations and pressing conservation concerns from Sumatra to Irian Jaya. A two-page section on "Indonesian for birders" contains useful phrases, but also cautions that some laughs may result since burung (bird) is a common slang word for male genitalia, and in West Java Sundanese means crazy in the head.

A final Periplus guide, Tropical Flowers (1996, $9.95), uses 120 color photos to identify 55 plant species widely found in Southeast Asian gardens. While many are native to the region, almost as many were introduced from the Americas, Africa, and Australia. Far from comprehensive, the slim, 64 page guide provides a handy reference for many hotel and garden plantings the visitor or resident will encounter.

With the increasing number of guides available, one might wonder which to get, and where. A guide covering your destination country and activity should prove sufficient, though just as divers enjoy discussing sites they've visited or intend to visit and birders keep species lists, avid nature buffs tend to collect guidebooks. Field guides dating from the 1940s through the 1960s have become collectors' items and increased in value. While the recently published guides are less likely to become collectors' items in view of their larger print runs, they more than make up for this by the pleasure owning them brings. In addition to the nature and travel sections of large or specialized bookstores, many of the guides are available from organizations such as the American Birding Association.
Hopefully, these books will stimulate additional interest in and increasing recognition of nature in Asia. The resulting knowledge and visits should then provide an economic incentive for conservation of the region's often unique and threatened natural resources.

John Day, a credit director at Salomon Smith Barney, has lived and traveled throughout Asia since the summer of 1962, when he was an exchange student in Karachi; he recently completed a five-year assignment in Hong Kong. A dedicated conservationist, he has served on the boards of the International Crane Foundation, the American Himalayan Foundation, and the Chicago Academy of Sciences.